


Hunting

by Winterling42



Series: Flesh and Blood and Dust [46]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Daemons Without Humans, Gen, Post-Canon, the daemons need character tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 07:25:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14765187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterling42/pseuds/Winterling42
Summary: Epharia and Aurelio have appointed themselves the cleaners of the Citadel, hunting down the shadowy daemons that the War Boys left behind.





	Hunting

**Author's Note:**

> From this point forward the series is going to be choppier, less chronological. I have transition pieces started, but not finished. Until then, enjoy these snapshots of the Citadel!

“One hears rumors,” Aurelio said from his careful perch on Epharia’s back. “That the world beyond the Wastes not quite so hard up as all this.”

“What do we care for rumors?” Epharia grunted, scrambling up a set of worn stone stairs. “Or legends, more like. Like Max said, there’s nothing out there but more salt.”

The two witch-daemons had appointed themselves cleaners of the Citadel, hunting down and weeding out all the feral daemons that had taken root in the shadows and menaced Wretched and War Boys alike. They’d worked the matter out between each other, and neglected to inform their humans of the arrangement. Neither had asked, yet, but Epharia had seen Furiosa’s curious looks and felt Max’s unease with her being gone eighteen hours at a time.

“He should calm down,” she said, out loud. “When we were out in the Wastes we’d go days without seeing each other.”

“I think it’s all the tunnels,” Aurelio said, following her line of thought without effort. “Sometimes I have trouble too.”

They were quiet for a while; the depths of the Citadel had been carved without apparent logic, and navigating the stairs was difficult for Epharia. The ferals liked to hide in the lower and upper levels, where humans didn’t travel often, and finding them was becoming difficult as they got wind of the witch-daemons’ hunt. They left little scent for Epharia to follow, could be so still that even Aurelio’s eyes couldn’t pick them out of the shadows. After passing several likely hiding spots without incident, Epharia picked up the conversation as if it hadn’t paused.

“I wasn’t with him. When they kept him here,” she told him like it was a confession, like she was ashamed of it. “When the War Boys caught us... I ran. And he was here alone.”

Aurelio made a sympathetic burble deep in his throat. “After Furiosa and I left the Vault,” he said, very quietly, “she demanded that we do the Mother’s test, even though neither of us had been prepared for it.”

Epharia, though she hadn’t picked up much of the Vuvalini’s dialect, made a quick deduction of Aurelio’s true meaning and nodded. She stopped walking at the juncture of two corridors, one ear turned back to listen to the eagle’s quiet words. 

“She went back into the Citadel without me,” he whispered. “And I did not see her again for five years. She learned this place without me, she did things and became someone else and I was not there for her. Epharia,” he said, and his voice was shaking suddenly, “How can we be truly their daemons if we have not been by their sides for all these things? Are they still ours if they look at us and have memories we did not experience together?”

Epharia shook herself, dislodging her careful passenger and turning to snap at his tail feathers. Startled, the eagle only barely managed to avoid her teeth and settle on a wheel in the wall. “For shame!” she said, every muscle in her body quivering with pent-up energy. “To say they are not ours! Do we not dream with them still? Do we not breathe when they breathe, fight when they fight? Could Furiosa ever keep from you who she truly is? I may not have been here for Max, but while he was hanging in that cage I survived! And so did you. They are _ours_ , Aurelio, and we are _theirs_. The distance between us cannot change that.”

“When she remembers, so do I.” Aurelio admitted, ducking his head down beneath his wing to hide from Epharia’s accusing glare. “Is it then shameful to wish I did not have to?”

“I remember things that happened to him.” Epharia admitted, sitting down to scratch at her ear with one leg. “They are horrible things. He doesn’t want to remember them either. But since we’ve been back here...” she trailed off. She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell this daemon, who had chosen to stay when she and Max left, that coming back had not been in her plan at all. “Since we’ve been back, remembering hurts less.” 


End file.
